An Honest Mistake
by Rainstorm Amaya Arianrhod
Summary: Arrows that hit the wrong people can have fascinating consequences. RaoulBuri


"It was an honest mistake."

The queen stood helplessly in the centre of the room, watching her friend pace around.

"Honest mistake or otherwise," Buri snapped, "I still did it!" She came to an abrupt halt beside a messy desk and started rummaging through the drawers, banging them shut with unnecessary force. "Damnation. Where did I put it?"

"Put what?" Thayet asked, getting out of the way of Buri's peregrinations.

"Lots of things," Buri answered crossly. "For instance my pens. I need to find them so I can write the reports later. Don't want to, but have to. Also a salve. And if you've seen my lucky dagger, or the reports I did for the last bandit attack, I would be very grateful. Goddess! Why do I lose so many things?"

"You sound like Alanna," Thayet remarked, and started to sift through the papers on Buri's overcrowded desk. "Perhaps if you organised yourself-"

"I'm disorganised so you aren't," Buri retorted. "It would be a dreadful thing if the Queen had a desk that wasn't less than pristine, but mine doesn't matter. That stack is our combined twice-yearly reports to go to Jon, Raoul, various army and navy people-"

"Buri!" Thayet exclaimed, excavating the aforementioned reports and noting a tea stain where someone had put down a tea cup with less than maximum care, but was interrupted by Jon entering the room.

"Thayet?"

"What is it?" Thayet smiled at her husband.

"Someone has put nonsense into Roald's head about monsters under the bed, and he refuses to sleep at all. I do have suspects, but-"

"Tell him stories to put nonsense out of his head, then," Buri interposed, preoccupied with a frantic search of her shelves. "Try some about Vau East-wind, they're nice-"

"Not for a toddler!" Thayet cried. "Those are gory."

"They are not," Buri insisted, and vanished into her bedroom.

"What are you looking for?" Jon called, perplexed, and exchanged a bemused glance with Thayet.

"Everything!" Buri shouted back. "Most importantly, wound salve! I know it's here somewhere!"

Jon whispered a query to Thayet, and was answered with a nod. "You didn't mean to hit Raoul," he said, raising his voice again. "It wasn't your fault. He'll be absolutely fine."

There was quiet, except for the sound of Buri turning her bedroom inside out in her search for the errant salve. Thayet waited, and then tugged Jon out of the room with a murmur of "I don't think she was listening to either of us."

A little later, Buri was still having no success and periodic bursts of salty K'miri cursewords in a mix of the elaborate and crude veins were issuing from the rooms, audible through the closed door.

Alanna followed the curses up the corridor and pushed the door open with a perfunctory knock. "Buri, you're piercing the eardrums of everyone for miles around." She stopped, and it occurred to her that she might be about to push her luck too far. The bedroom door's lock clicked stubbornly shut, confirming her worries. She tapped the door. "Buri, let me in."

Nothing happened. Alanna narrowed her eyes and kicked the door. "Buri, open this door, or so help me Goddess I will blast it into next month!"

Buri opened it reluctantly with a sullen expression and Alanna stepped inside. "I'm just looking for things."

"Wound salve. I heard."

"So what?" Buri said defensively. "Your face is about as easy to read as a large-print book. What do you want?"

Alanna set a picture frame straight conscientiously and then turned to face Buri. "Your swearwords were almost as loud as your scream when that arrow hit Raoul. Do you know, I don't think I've ever heard you scream before?"

Buri said nothing, but stared straight into her eyes. _I'm going to get you for this later. _

Alanna returned the expression. _I know._

"I was frightened," Buri admitted gruffly.

Alanna shot her a look. _Of what?_

There was more silence. "No!" Buri shouted. "No. He's a friend. Wouldn't you scream like that if an arrow you fired hit a friend?"

"All right," Alanna said smugly. "It's not as if I'm going to tell anyone. Don't worry."

Buri glared at her with pure venom. "You're wrong." She paused, and added grudgingly: "But how long have you thought that?"

"Months," Alanna said comfortably, and dodged a thrown book. "Done with throwing things?"

"No!" Buri answered angrily, and the next missile flew towards Alanna. She ducked, and it hit the wall just above her head. It was a heavy paperweight, and Alanna viewed the dent in Buri's wall with interest.

"Shall I send for a plasterer?" she asked, adding, "I daresay it was the shock that made you scream. Only the shock. Happy?" Then she moved over to stand by Buri, who was standing on a chair and rifling through a high cupboard. Alanna muttered something in Buri's ear. It might have been 'He's asking for you.'

Buri turned another glare on her. "Why didn't you say so?"

"You were looking for your salve," Alanna said with the best assumption of innocence she could manage, and then picked up a small corked green glass tub. "Is this it?"

Buri seized it. "Yes! Have you seen my lucky dagger?"

"You lent it to Raoul. He's still got it," was the answer. "Won't let go of it, in point of fact, so get down there and get it off him before the duty healer dies of exasperation. Go on!"

Buri left, slightly faster than she might have meant to. Observing this, Alanna smiled. She waited for a count of ten, giving the other woman time to get out of earshot, and then said aloud: "George, you can come out now. You were right. Good guess."

Buri turned a corner and pushed the door to the healer's ward she'd been informed Raoul was in. "Raoul? Are you awake?"

"No!" the duty healer snapped, sweeping towards Buri. "Or shouldn't be, rather! And if you can make him give me that heathen dagger, I'll throw it away! There's no call for that sort of ragtag magic here!"

"You won't," came the retort, weaker than usual but still recognizably Raoul. "Go away, you ghastly old bat!"

"That's too much!" the healer declared. "I am _leaving_! I'm tired and almost drained and not in a mood to suffer impertinence!" Politely, Buri held the door open for her and let it swing shut behind her.

There was a chair near the door. Buri dragged it over to Raoul's bed, and sat down. "Sorry for spiking you with an arrow." She fidgeted, turning the salve over and over in her hands.

"It's all right. What's that?"

Buri put it down on the small table close by. "Salve."

"Really?" Raoul craned his neck to look at it. "What does it do?"

"Something about that," Buri told him, gently touching the thickly bandaged right shoulder the arrow had hit. "You can't walk around with a hole in your shoulder. Especially not one I put there. I'm so sorry."

"Hey." Raoul reached out with the injured hand to brush her cheek. "Stop it. Many of my esteemed friends have put dents in me and broken my limbs, often by mistake, but I'm still here. I got in the way of your shot. It's more my fault than yours."

"It is not," Buri growled. "I should have shot the bandit. Not you!"

"You didn't shoot me as such," Raoul said with patience. "No, the arrow you shot hit the wrong person."

"Messing about with the words doesn't make any difference!"

"What can I say that's going to make you believe me?"

Buri felt tears starting in her eyes and cursed herself viciously. "Nothing, because I shot you. I'm sorry."

"You don't need to keep saying sorry."

"I do. It's my fault." Buri turned the chair around and rested her chin on the chair back.

"It _isn't_. Come here."

"Why?" Buri asked cautiously, coming a little closer. Raoul managed to catch hold of one of her hands and pulled her still closer to him.

"I can't kiss you when you're all the way over there, that's why."


End file.
